


Sherlock's Curious Problem

by LucoLoco



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-05
Updated: 2013-02-05
Packaged: 2017-11-28 06:10:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/671179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LucoLoco/pseuds/LucoLoco
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"They told you he’d be okay, and he will be. You know that it’d take a lot more than a gunshot to stop Lestrade. So why can’t you stop worrying?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sherlock's Curious Problem

**Author's Note:**

> Wrote it back in 2011

Right now, you look at him in his hospital bed from the uncomfortable chair.

They told you he’d be okay, and he will be. You know that it’d take a lot more than a gunshot to stop Lestrade.

So why can’t you stop worrying?

He’s been doing this for years. He’s made it to DI, so he’s clearly good at what he does, and what he does happens to be occasionally dangerous. The fact that he’s here in the hospital waiting to recover, is more than enough to prove how dangerous his job can be. He knows the risks just as much as you do. Maybe it bothers you because _this_ has never happened before. No, not getting injured on the job. That’s happened before. It’s because this time, he’s here because of you.

**Or at least you think it’s because of you. If you hadn’t gone out to solve the case on your own, he wouldn’t have followed. You won’t stop blaming yourself for the next couple of weeks.**

You think that maybe the best thing for him is if you stop contacting him so much, or start accepting fewer cases than usual. Then you realize you couldn’t possibly do _that_ , obviously because he constantly needs your help. He’d be lost without it, plus he’d be suspicious if you suddenly cut the number of cases you accepted. Maybe... maybe you could take the more of the boring ones. That way you could help him solve his investigations, and still...

But...

But that wouldn’t stop him taking on those more dangerous ones. You try to tell yourself that’s not your problem then, because if he gets hurt, that would be his own fault, not yours.

But...

But that’s not acceptable either.

Why is this so hard to figure out? Nothing has ever been this hard to solve before.

**Well, this sort of thing usually isn’t this hard to figure out for _other_ people. It’s just that _you’ve_ never had to deal with sort of thing.**

Well, maybe... maybe you can still take on those more interesting, more difficult cases anyway, and try to solve them before he can. That way, if you’ve gone out on your own before he can, he can’t possibly get into danger because with your intellect, you’ll have solved it before he’s even left the station to follow his first lead. The only problem is sometimes he has this awful habit of figuring out that you’ve gone out on your own, and he manages to find you, and he stupidly won’t let you handle it because of your own safety. You’ve never understood that. Why he would care so much about you? You’ve always assumed it was because you solve all of his investigations.

**You must not notice the look on his face of frustrated relief when he finds you unharmed after you’ve gone off on your own, or worse, the look of distress on his face when he finds out you’ve been hurt. Well, you’re an extremely observant genius, so you must be ignoring it. Or maybe you’re so unused to seeing that face directed towards you that you simply don’t recognize what it is.**

After mulling ideas in your head, you decide that because he simply needs you and you need him to keep you from getting bored, you’ll continue taking on the cases. However, endangering Lestrade, or allowing him to put himself in danger, is out of the question, so if he requests your help, you decide that maybe you can be more cooperative when he comes to you. That way, if you communicate with each other, you can keep better watch on him and his progress, and you can decide what to do in order to keep him safe. This couldn’t possibly go wrong, and he won’t question anything because he needs you too much for his cases to risk losing your help.

**Of course, Lestrade will question you because he expects you to be difficult and uncooperative, and as stupid as you think he is, he is in fact smarter than you give him credit for. In fact, in a couple of weeks, he’ll tell you that he’s noticed how weird you’ve been acting because you’ve agreed with everything he’s told you and has asked of you.**

After you make your decision, you realize that there is something still niggling at the back of your mind. Why does Lestrade’s safety and well-being matter to you? If it were as simple as the fact that he provides you with a way your mind from stagnating, you could just find work from a different person, and you have. Some DIs work with you, though not as... willingly as Lestrade does. They constantly fight with you, even though you eventually prove yourself to be right. Lestrade is more amenable to your suggestions. In fact, Lestrade constantly defends you, even when it’s him against the rest of his crew. He sticks his neck out for you and risks his job almost as if he actually trusts you. The other DIs have certainly never done those things for you.

You come to the conclusion that you want Lestrade to get better and to never get hurt again because he works well with you and lets you solve crimes without much interference or resistance. It doesn’t hurt that you also like the idea that someone trusts you, treats you nicely, and actually defends your actions for once. Besides, a man like him should not be lying in that hospital bed like this.

That’s when you truly have everything figured out.

**It’s always something, isn’t it? In a couple of weeks, when Lestrade confronts you on your odd behavior, he’ll demand to know why you’ve been acting so weird. Self-assuredly, you’ll tell him everything about why you’ve been acting differently, everything that you figured out by his hospital bed. He’ll chuckle at you. You’ll react angrily because no one likes being laughed at, and he’ll keep smiling through your scolding as if he knows something you don’t, which only irritates you more. You’ll finish your tirade, and he’ll show you that he needs you for more than just the fact that you can solve his cases easily, and you’ll understand everything a little bit better.**


End file.
